Blogging about life at a Benedictine monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Fall Nostalgia

This time of year always makes me feel nostalgic. The end of summer and the approach of autumn carry a sense of sadness with them. Even the air seems to smell different.

I'm nostalgic, too, because it's the start of the school year. And, for me, that sense of nostalgia carries a certain energy with it, as well as the feeling of sadness. I suppose that's what nostalgia is - a mix of feelings, not just one thing or the other like, "I'm happy" or "I'm sad." When I first started writing this blog, I thought "melancholy" was the word I'd use, but then that seemed to link the sense I'm trying to convey to negative emotions, and it's not a negative feeling. Instead, it's a particular coming together of different feelings which seem an unlikely combination. I think it's to do with something new (the academic year) starting, mixed with the richness of ripened fruits and leaves just now hinting at turning those spectacular autumn shades (as you can see in the photograph taken by Sister Vernice Ramler); yet all this abundance signals the dying of the year.

It's a paradox: unsettling but somehow lovely at the same time. It's a time, too, when those beautiful words from Ecclesiastes seem so appropriate: "To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven." It's not really a time to analyze, but to let the feelings be and accept my sense of nostalgia as the gift of this particular season.

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This blog is maintained by a group of Sisters at Saint Benedict's Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota. We try to post weekly and often succeed at that.
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